Archives par mot-clé : ethnographie

CALL FOR PAPERS – 12th InASEA conference : THE SOCIAL LIFE OF INFORMALITY: VERNACULAR GOVERNANCE, CLIENTELISM, AND GREY ECONOMIES IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE

12th InASEA conference

THE SOCIAL LIFE OF INFORMALITY:
VERNACULAR GOVERNANCE,
CLIENTELISM, AND GREY ECONOMIES IN
SOUTHEAST EUROPE

8-11 OCTOBER 2026

CALL FOR PAPERS

Organisers:
The Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology,
Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics,
“Sts. Cyril and Methodius” University in Skopje

ABOUT THE TOPIC

Across Southeast Europe, public life is deeply shaped by practices that exist beyond the boundaries of formal institutions and legal definitions: informal arrangements, clientelist networks, personalized governance, and grey economic activities. Rather than viewing these phenomena as mere dysfunctions or residues of underdevelopment, this conference seeks to explore them as deeply embedded, historically situated, and socially meaningful practices.

This event brings together scholars, researchers, and practitioners to reflect on the social life of informality — how people navigate institutions, forge relationships, and secure livelihoods through alternative and often vernacular forms of organization. Informality, clientelism, and the grey economy are not simply exceptions to the rule of law; they are part of the rule’s lived reality, coexisting with formal systems in ways that are often adaptive, ambivalent, and ethically complex.

Too often, dominant policy discourses impose singular and moralizing definitions of these practices, overlooking the local logics, cultural histories, and everyday negotiations through which they emerge. This conference invites us to move beyond normative frameworks and toward a more anthropological and ethnographically grounded understanding — one that centers lived experience, historical depth, and moral reasoning.

By tracing how governance actually functions in everyday life — in homes, markets, offices, neighborhoods, and kinship networks — we can better understand the vernacular forms of statehood, legitimacy, and cooperation that sustain social life in times of uncertainty and
institutional fragility.

CALL FOR PAPERS

We welcome contributions that explore the ambiguous and situated nature of informality, clientelism, and grey economies, especially through qualitative, ethnographic, and historically informed approaches. We are interested in how these practices are shaped by and shape social
relations, moral economies, and historical memory, as well as how they relate to broader processes of transition, globalization, and digital transformation.

Submissions may focus on any part of Southeast Europe, and comparative or transregional perspectives are encouraged.

Key Themes (suggested, but not limited to):

Ethnographies of informality: how people solve problems, navigate bureaucracy, and build networks in everyday life.
Clientelist arrangements: political loyalty, social obligation, and personalized systems of exchange.

Grey economic activity: informal labor, hybrid livelihoods, and everyday entrepreneurship in precarious contexts.

Moral economies and vernacular ethics: how people define fairness, obligation, and legitimacy in informal transactions.

Historical legacies: how socialist, imperial, or post-conflict histories continue to shape informal governance.

Discretion, negotiation, and workaround cultures in public administration and social services.

Kinship, friendship, and local solidarities as foundations of informal systems.

Digital transformations of informality: new platforms, apps, and networks for informal exchange.

Urban space and informality: housing, infrastructure, and informal urban planning.
Everyday engagements with the state: how the state is interpreted, invoked, or circumvented.

Gendered and generational dimensions of informal life and economic survival.

Beyond binaries: challenging the dichotomy between formal and informal, legal and illegal, modern and traditional.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words, clearly outlining the research question, approach, and key insights.
Please include a short biographical note (max 150 words) for each author.

We welcome submissions from early-career scholars, doctoral researchers, and practitioner-researchers, alongside established academics.

Contributions may be theoretical, empirical, or methodological.
For panel submission: title of the panel, names of panellists (no more than four panellists per
panel), abstracts of each panellist (no more than 300 words), and their short biographies (no
more than 100 words).

Submission Deadline: 27 February 2026
Notification of Acceptance: 27 April 2026

CONFERENCE FORMAT

The conference will feature keynote lectures, thematic panels, and roundtable discussions
designed to foster open, interdisciplinary exchange. Select contributions may be invited for
inclusion in a special journal issue or an edited volume on informality, clientelism, and
everyday governance in Southeast Europe.

CONTACT INFORMATION

For abstract submissions and inquiries, please contact: inasea2000@gmail.com
For updates and full conference details: Dushica Brachikj and Aleksandar Meshkov
inasea2000@gmail.com

REVIEWING COMMITTEE

Elena Barbulescu, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Nebi Bardhoshi, Tiranë, Albania
Alenka Bartulović, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Danijela Birt Katić, Zadar, Croatia
Ioannis Manos, Thessaloniki, Greece
Robert Pichler, Viena, Austria
Ljupcho S. Risteski, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Ljupcho S. Risteski, President of the Committee, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Mirjana Mirchevska, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Ilina Jakimovska, Head of IEA, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Davorin Trpeski, Dean of FNSM, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Ana Ashtalkovska Gajtanoska, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Ines Crvenkovska Risteska, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Viktor Trajanovski, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia

CONFERENCE SECRETARIES
Dushica Brachikj, IEA, FNSM, UKIM, Republic of North Macedonia
Aleksandar Meshkov, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia

CONFERENCE FEE

InASEA members who have paid their membership dues for the past two years will be asked to pay an on-site only Conference fee of 40 EUR.

Non-InASEA members and members who have not paid their dues will be asked to pay an on-site Conference fee of:

80 EUR for participants from Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece,
Kosova, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey; 120 EUR for participants from all other countries.

For all participants who have paid the Conference fee, the conference organizers will cover full accommodation and meals during the Conference.

For conference participants who do not require accommodation and meals, the conference
fee is 40 EUR.

ACCOMMODATION SUPPORT AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

Co-financing of accommodation and travel costs will be available for young scholars (Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers up to the age of 35) who are not employed and do not have access to other funding sources (e.g., project funds). Eligible applicants may receive
financial support up to a maximum of 150 EUR.

The final decision will be made by the Organizing Committee.

Alevi Archive: Ethnohistory of Alevi Communities in Anatolia, 16th–20th Century | Deadline: 30/11/2025

Source : https://www.saw-leipzig.de/de/ausschreibungen/stellenausschreibungen/

Date-limite/Deadline : 30/11/2025

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For the project Alevi Archive: Ethnohistory of Alevi Communities in Anatolia, 16th–20th Century we announce the following positions:

The project will reconstruct the only scarcely explored ethnohistory of the Alevis in Anatolia, focusing on the period from the 16th to the 20th century. It will examine settlement dynamics and the processes of community-building among Alevi groups, as well as their complex relationships with the state, Sunni Muslims, and non-Muslims. Combining a range of methods based on previously unconnected sources—including Ottoman archives, Alevi manuscripts, oral traditions, and material culture—a comprehensive virtual research environment will be developed. This environment will enable the reconstruction of the development of Alevi communities within the context of Ottoman social and religious history from the Early Modern Period to the Modern Era.

Appel à candidature – International spring school – Research in urban settings: the challenges of ethnography

Research in urban settings: the challenges of ethnography
International Spring School

When: March 30 – April 3, 2026

Where: Athens

Deadline for application: December 5, 2025 (midnight Greek time)

Contact : dir.moderne@efa.gr    

Download the call for participation (EN) | Télécharger l’appel (FR)

Institutions partenaires:

  • École française d’Athènes
  • Panteion University
  • EKKE

The world, now defined across the globe as “urban”, is indeed an anthropological subject in the broadest sense. This spring school, entitled “The challenges of ethnography”, aims to demonstrate the place, role and challenges of such an approach in the field of urban studies. The aim is to understand what makes the city a major anthropological phenomenon, namely the production of urbanities.
Three axes will form the approach developed during this spring school: an analysis of ethnographic methods, the importance of comparison and, finally, on writing. We will begin by examining urban studies through the lens of the ethnographic method. How do current urban contexts lead us to reconsider the very notion of “fieldwork” and critically re-evaluate the methodologies implied? Moreover, ethnography raises questions in relation to the researchers’ role, the way he/she creates and/or shares knowledge. Ethnography also addresses the conditions of urban knowledge production, the so-called savoir urbain, the questioning of “situated knowledge” and how the fieldwork experience can provide a unique perspective. We will then argue for comparison, which alone allows us to understand urban worlds both in their particularity and universality: this is obviously not related to a long- outdated division; comparing does not imply judging certain cities against other urban areas. Numerous new and micro-scale ethnographies, conducted “here” and “there”, have clearly demonstrated the heuristic qualities of the ethnographic approach, embedded in a comparative perspective for constructing a renewed conceptual framework. The contribution of ethnography to understanding the ways in which “worlds are made”, at the center and on the outskirts of contemporary cities, is well established.
Thinking about ethnography reflects also on its “writing” in relation to the experience of the “field”: many researchers are experimenting with “alternative forms of writing” – images and sounds in particular. We will examine the extent to which these new forms of storytelling can also be used in urban studies. How can these forms of narrative production challenge hegemonic narratives? Multiplying voices and perspectives seems to be not only characteristic of these new writings, but also the necessary condition for a shared anthropology, anthropologie en partage.
|By combining lectures and workshops, we seek to stimulate reflection on the city, starting from a unique urban environment, the one in Athens, and rooting it in a comparative perspective, in the Balkan region and more broadly. The aim will be to examine different approaches to the urban environment, its “writing” and its restitution. This approach will enable participants to design collaborative projects based on ethnography, choosing the narrative form they feel most appropriate for restituting the urban environments studied, as well as their proper experience.

Main interest subjects

  • History of urban anthropology in the Balkans
  • Athens through the eyes of ethnographers
  • Comparative perspectives in urban anthropology
  • Pathways and attachments in the city
  • Alternative writings of the city
  • Working with images: photography

Organizing and scientific committee

  • Aliki ANGELIDOU Panteion University, Athens, Greece
  • Sophie CHEVALIER Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France
  • Gilles DE RAPPER École française d’Athènes, Greece
  • Emmanuelle LALLEMENT Université de Paris VIII, FrancΕ
  • Irini MICHA National Technical University of Athens, Greece
  • Iris POLYZOU National Technical University of Athens, Greece
  • Nikos SOULIOTIS (EKKE, Athens, Greece)
  • Stavros SPYRELIS EKKE, Athens, Greece
  • Gwendoline TORTERAT Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France

Course requirements

The spring school will involve from 10 to 15 students enrolling (a) to the last year of their under-graduate studies, (b) in post-graduate and master studies and (3) PhD candidates in the fields of anthropology, sociology and geography.

The working language of the Spring School is English.

Courses and workshops will take place at Panteion University, the École française d’Athènes and EKKE.

Participants must commit themselves for the whole duration of the Spring School. It is expected that they attend all the courses, workshops and sessions selected and actively participate in discussion with workshop convenors, colleagues and presenters. Additional events, including cultural visits, group bonding sessions, art presentations might be scheduled during the week. At the end of the Spring School, students will present their project in relation to their research and the workshops they have attended. The presentations will be discussed by lecturers and other students.

Costs

No fees are required from the participants. The organizing team will provide accommodation from March 29 to April 4 and a number of lunches. Any cost of visits will also be covered. Travel to and from Athens is not covered by the organizers. We actively encourage you to ask a reimbursement for your travel expenses from your university.

Application

The application comprises the following five (5) documents in pdf format, which will be directly uploaded to the plateforme Missions before the 5th of December (12:00 Greek time):

  • recommendation letter
  • letter of motivation (max 2 page)
  • Curriculum Vitae (max 2 page)
  • brief presentation of the PhD project (max 1 page)
  • title and short description of the foreseen presentation during the seminar (max 1 page) Mode d’emploi de la plateforme Missions (in French).

Contact: dir.moderne@efa.gr

The selection of the participants will be announced by the 17th of December.

A la poursuite de radiotočka ! Lancement de la série

Disponible sur/Available on Arteradio, Deezer, Soundcloud.

Un ethnologue français part en Bulgarie sur la piste d’une radio communiste disparue…
A partir de 1947, la Bulgarie s’équipe massivement en matériel de diffusion radiophonique, sous l’influence de l’Union Soviétique : apparait alors un récepteur câblé monocanal, appelé radiotočka (радиоточка). Présent dans les maisons privées, l’espace public et différents bâtiments institutionnels, ce “point radio” diffusait les émissions nationales et des programmes locaux, entre information et propagande.
Que reste-t-il de radiotočka ? Quelle était sa portée auprès des gens ? De quoi est faite la mémoire sonore du communisme en Bulgarie ? Quelles en sont les voix, les musiques, les ambiances, les textures ? Entre réalité et fiction, documentaire et imaginaire, recherche et
création, cette série embarque l’auditeur dans une enquête ethnographique aussi originale que
surprenante.

Olivier Givre : recherche – prise de son – écriture – traduction – voix.
Raphaël Cordray : réalisation – prise de son – montage – mixage – musique – voix.
Voix : Annie Cordray, Aurélie Darbouret, Damien Faure, Dusan Kazic, Rodica Pausan, Christo Popov, Ekaterina
Shakarova, Maria Stoeva.
Remerciements : Zdravko Gueorguiev, Svilen Kostadinov, Krassimira Krastanova, Velio Isaev, Zahari Milenkov,
Roumyana Nikolova, Anton Orush, Anna Papuktchieva†, Petya Platchkova, Antoineta Radoslavova-Doitcheva,
Maria Slavtcheva, Meglena Zlatkova et toutes les personnes rencontrées lors de cette enquête.

Marina Chauliac, Annie Cordray, Aurélie Darbouret, Damien Faure, Dusan Kazic, Claire Mandon, Eugenia Maximova,
Rodica Pausan, Maya Pelovska, Christo Popov, Ekaterina Shakarova, Maria Stoeva et toutes les personnes
ayant contribué à ce projet. Merci aux contributeurs KissKissBankBank !
Les enregistrements radiophoniques utilisés dans cette œuvre ont été gracieusement mis à disposition par la
Radio Nationale Bulgare.
Avec le soutien financier de l’Université Lumière-Lyon2 – direction science & société, direction recherche et
études doctorales, CNRS Sciences Humaines & Sociales – programme de soutien aux sciences partagées,
l’Ecole Française d’Athènes, l’UMR EVS – CNRS 5600.
Avec le concours de la Compagnie Microphone, la Radio Nationale Bulgare, la Fabrique des Ecritures
Ethnographiques, Radio France Internationale, le réseau CREABALK-Creative Balkans.

EFA – Le Laboratoire ethnographique

Le Laboratoire ethnographique

Lieux
22/05 –
École française d’Athènes, Didotou 6 | Suivre en ligne

23/05 – Musée Benaki
24/05- Princeton Athens Center for Research and Hellenic Studies, Timarchou 3 | Suivre en ligne

Comité d’organisation
Alexandre Farnoux Professeur d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art grec à Sorbonne Université / École française d’Athènes

Polina Kosmadaki Conservatrice d’art moderne et contemporain au musée Benaki, Athènes
Philippe Peltier Conservateur du Patrimoine, ancien responsable de l’Unité patrimoniale Océanie – Insulinde au musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris
Effie Rentzou Professeur de littérature française à l’Université de Princeton

Programme FR/EN

Résumés | Abstracts

Le colloque Le Laboratoire ethnographique est organisé par l’École française d’Athènes, le Musée Benaki et le Princeton Athens Center for Research and Hellenic Studies avec pour objectif d’explorer les liens entre archéologie, ethnologie et création artistique, tels qu’ils se sont tissés à Paris dans l’entre-deux-guerres autour de la question de l’objet.
Ce colloque est associé à l’exposition Objets en question, archéologie, ethnologie, avant-garde présentée au musée du quai Branly, du 11 février au 22 juin 2025. Celle-ci revient sur le moment privilégié de l’entre-deux-guerres, où, à Paris, l’avant-garde artistique – et plus particulièrement les surréalistes – réinvente la notion d’objet, qu’elle manipule ou parodie dans ses créations.
Durant cette période, l’arrivée de nombreux objets en provenance d’Amérique, d’Afrique, d’Océanie et d’Asie, et leur prise en compte, tant sur le plan esthétique que documentaire, s’accompagnent d’une remise en question de la supériorité de l’art grec classique, érigé jusqu’alors en idéal du beau. L’intérêt renouvelé pour la Grèce préclassique, soutenu par de nombreuses fouilles et découvertes (art cycladique, art minoen, art archaïque, etc.), déplace l’idée du « grec » vers un passé plus ancien, qui rejoint, par ses valeurs et son esthétique, les objets ethnographiques. L’avant-garde artistique s’empare alors de cette nouvelle Grèce préclassique. Le monde grec et les mondes «exotiques» deviennent l’une des sources d’une esthétique radicalement nouvelle.
Le colloque Le laboratoire ethnographique entend précisément mettre en lumière ce tournant décisif. Il s’agit d’explorer ce changement de paradigme, ce phénomène de triangulation fertile et dynamique qui se met alors en place, dont les pointes seraient l’archéologie, l’ethnographie et l’art moderne.
Douze chercheurs internationaux, archéologues, ethnologues et historiens de l’art participent à ce débat, organisé en quatre constellations qui correspondent à la structure même de l’exposition.

François Ruegg, Retour dans les Carpates – Un ethnologue au pays de Ceaușescu

La Roumanie, un pays suscitant des sentiments les plus ambigus. Si la presse en parle, c’est pour dévoiler un scandale. Aux touristes, à qui on vantait jadis les plages bon marché de la Mer Noire, on vante encore les monastères peints de Moldavie. Le Delta du Danube attire maintenant aussi les écologistes. C’est grâce aux nombreux intellectuels de réputation internationale que la carte de visite roumaine a meilleure presse : Istrati, Tzara, Ionesco, Gheorghiu, Eliade, Cioran, Brâncusi pour les plus fameux.

Le présent ouvrage donne une autre vision de ce pays, à travers les yeux d’un apprenti ethnologue dans les années 1970, puis d’un professeur invité dès les années 2000, fasciné avant tout par les habitants des campagnes, leur habitat et leur mode de vie. S’il a été parfois choqué par les interrogatoires que leur font subir les ethnographes officiels, l’auteur demeure toujours curieux d’observer la société roumaine sous ses multiples facettes.

François Ruegg est ethnologue, professeur émérite de l’Université de Fribourg (Suisse). Il a mené de nombreuses recherches en Europe du sud-est, particulièrement en Roumanie, ex-Yougoslavie et Bulgarie, portant principalement sur l’environnement construit et son histoire.

François Ruegg, Retour dans les Carpates – Un ethnologue au pays de Ceaușescu, Vienne, Kmet verlag, 2023 (250 p., 32,50 €)

 

Centenaire de l’Institut d’études slaves / Centenary of the Institute for Slavic Studies

L’Institut d’études slaves (Paris 6e) fête ses 100 ans en organisant de nombreuses rencontres scientifiques entre le 17 et le 26 octobre 2023, notamment une table ronde sur la Réception des littératures slaves contemporaines en France le mardi 24 octobre ou encore une journée d’études sur L’Institut d’études slaves et ses premières recherches en ethnographie, oralité et culture matérielle le vendredi 26 octobre.

Voici le programme complet (pdf), et ci-dessous les programmes détaillés du 24 et 26 octobre:

Continuer la lecture de Centenaire de l’Institut d’études slaves / Centenary of the Institute for Slavic Studies

Soutenance de thèse de Milena Pavlovic

Une ville entre-deux. Ethnographie des dynamiques frontalières à Mitrovica (Kosovo)

La soutenance aura lieu le vendredi 2 juillet à 9h à l’Université Paris Nanterre – Bât. B – Salle Pierre GRAPPIN – Salle René REMOND (B015).

 La soutenance est publique (dans la limite de 25 personnes et du respect des gestes barrières) et sera suivie d’un pot à l’extérieur, auquel vous êtes chaleureusement invité.e.s. Il y aura également la possibilité d’assister à la soutenance par visioconférence. Si vous souhaitez y assister, n’hésitez pas à me contacter (pavlovicmil90@gmail.com) afin que je puisse vous transmettre les informations nécessaires.

Le jury sera composé de :

Mme Monica HEINTZ, Anthropologue, Professeure des Universités, Université Paris Nanterre (directrice de thèse)

Gilles DE RAPPER, Anthropologue, Chargé de recherche au CNRS, École française d’Athènes (rapporteur)

Mme Galia VALTCHINOVA, Anthropologue, Professeure des Université, Université de Toulouse II (rapporteure)

Mme Nathalie CLAYER, Historienne, Directrice de recherche au CNRS, EHESS (membre du jury)

Cédric PARIZOT, Anthropologue, Chargé de recherche au CNRS, Aix Marseille Université (membre du jury)

Continuer la lecture de Soutenance de thèse de Milena Pavlovic